Portable drilling mechanism



Sept. 0, 1940. G. 1.. HASSLER PORTABLE DRILLING MECHANI SM 'Filed Oct.51. 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Invenror: Gerald L. os sler' Sept. 10, 1940.e. L, HASSLER 2,214,370

PORTABLE DRILLING MECHANISM Filed Oct. 31, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 55Fig.8

Fig.6

- Patented Sept. 10, 1940 UNITED STATES PORTABLE nmnmc. MECHANISM GeraldL. Hassler, Berkeley, Calif), assignor to Shell Development Company, SanFrancisco,

Calif., a corporation of Delaware Application October 31, 1938, SerialNo. 237,915 1 Claim. ,(cL255-19) from station to station for purposessuch as, for' example, soil exploration, said inechanism being capableof operation under any .conditions'of flatm or sloping terrain.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a drilling or drivingmechanism comprising a hydraulic ram anda reversible clutch whereby theweight of the vehicle on which the mechanism is mounted is effectivelyapplied either to force the desired tool into the ground, or to withdrawit therefrom.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a mechanism comprisinga lead screw device ca- 20 pable of either a rotative drilling, or of alinear driving action;

The present invention will be understood from the following descriptiontaken with reference to the attached drawings, wherein: 25 .Fig. 1 is aschematic plan view showing a ve- Y hicle, such as an automobile ortruck with the present drilling or driving mechanism mounted thereon; I

' Fig. 2 is an elevation view, partly in crss-sec-' 30 tion, of saiddrilling or driving mechanism;

Figs. 3 and 4 are plan views taken in cross-section-along lines IIIIIIand IV--IV of Fig. 2, respectively; 1

Fig. 5 is a plan view of theplate 25 shown in Fig. 6 is a verticalcross-section view of clutch 33 of Fig. 2; Fig. 7 is a'plan view incross-section taken along line VII--VH of Fig. 6;

4o Fig. 8 is an elevation view of the slotted supporting pipe 50 of Fig.6; and

Fig. 9 is a detailed view of the bit used with the present apparatus.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, a transverse heavy 45 steel member 2 isrotatably mounted on pivots 4 between the longitudinal frame members 3and 3a. of a vehicle 5. Suitably attached, for example, by welding, tothe cross-member 2, is a steel pos I, located approximately midway be-50 tween th frame members 3 and 3a, and normally at right anglesthereto. A member In, welded or bolted to the member 2 is an adjustablesliding engagement, by means of a screw l l with a slotted member 9,welded or bolted to the frame member 55 3a, When operating on a slopingground, for example, on the side of a steep hill, the screw H isloosened, and the post I rotated about the pivots 4 until it assumesavertical or other def sired position, whereafter the screw 'Ilisjtightened again and drilling maybe carried along a 5 vertical line.

A cross-arm I5 is welded or bolted to the post I, and supports, by meansof a. hollow piston-rod H, a hydraulic cylinder 20.

A pressure liquid from a pump, or other suit- 10 able device (not shownon the drawings), is delivered to cylinder by means'of pipe or pipes I9and causes it to reciprocate in a vertical direction, the supports 22(shown also in Fig. 3) guiding said cylinder along a path parallel tothe post I. The construction of the hydraulic cylinder is ofconventional nature andforms no part of the present invention.

4 Pivoted between arms 24 and 24a, weldedto the casing of the cylinder20, is a threaded nut 26 travelling along a lead screw 28. Fixedlyattached to one end of the lead screw 28' is aplate 29, and to the otherend a yoke 3|, in which is pivoted a clutch or grip mechanism 33 shownin detail in Figs. 6 and 7. The clutch 33, lead screw 28, and plate 29are provided with an'internal bore through which passes a rod or drillstem 35, which may beprovided with-a head or drill bit3l, adapted to beforced into the ground.

Referring to Figs. 6 and 7, the yoke 3| is shown supporting a clutch box33, open at the top and bottom. Guiding plates 4|, Ma, 42, and 42a arewelded, at an angle to each other and to the vertical, to the walls 43and 43a of the clutch box. These plates guide into engagement with rod35, passing within the clutch box 33, the grips 45, 45a,

45, and 460., the rod 35 being held for upward motion by suitably cutteeth of grips 45 and 46, and for downward motion by those of grips 45a.and 46a.

For proper engagement of the grips 45, a, 46, and 46a with the rod 35,the grips are loosely supported by a tubular holder 50, shown also'inFig. 8, which is provided for this purpose with 45 four slots' such asshown at 5| The tubular holder or slotted pipe 50, which surrounds therod 35, is capable of relative vertical motion with regard to the clutchbox 33 and rod 35, and is provided with an upper threaded portion 53, 50adapted to engage a screw-threaded cap or lid 55.

When it is desired to operate the clutch for pulling the rod 35 from theground, the cap is unscrewed until the rim 51 of cap 55 is out ofengagement with the walls of the clutch box 33. '55

applied to cap 55 and slotted pipe 58, which is transmitted throughshoulders 58 of the upper slots 5| to the upper face of grips 45 and 4G,caus ing them to slide down along the guiding plates 4! and 42 intowedging engagement with rod 35,

while the lower grips 45a. and 46a. remain idle in their slots, in theposition shown in Fig. 6. when it is desired to operate the clutch forforcing the rod 35 into the ground, the cap 55 is screwed down alongholder 50 until the rims 51 engage the walls of the box 48, whereuponcontainued rotation of cap 55 causes the grip holder 58 to move upwards,relieving the'pressure on the grips- 45 and 4G, and causing grips 45aand 45a to engage the rod 35 through the pressure exerted by theshoulders 59'of the lower slots 5| on the lower face of said grips.

In operation, the vehicle 5 is taken to the location wherein it isdesired to drill a hole, or to drive a rod into the ground. By adjustingthe mechanism 9--|0-ll, the post 1 is given a desired generally verticalposition while the clutch mechanism 33 is set so as to bring the lowergrips 45a and 46a into engagement with the rod 35, as explained above. Apressure liquid is then delivered to the cylinder 20, causing it to movedownwards. The motion of cylinder causes nut 26 to move downwards alongthe lead screw 28 causing the latter to rotate together with the clutchmechanism 33 and to move downward under a pressure not exceeding, theweight of the whole assembly including the vehicle but sufficient todrive bit 31 of rod 35 into the ground, said rod being firmly held bythe lower grips a and 46a. After the cylinder 20 reaches the end of itsdownward stroke, the wedging pressure of plates Ma and 42a on the grips45a. and 48a, is relieved by thereversal of motion of cylinder 28, andgrips 45a and 4611 are caused to slide upwards-along the rod 35 duringthe upward stroke of the cylinder without lifting said rod.

When it is desired to pull from the ground a rod which had been drilledor driven thereinto,

the present mechanism is operated in the same manner, but with the uppergrips 45 and 45, instead of the lower grips 45a and 45a in operativeengagement with the rod 35, thus reversing the unidirectional movementof rod 35. c The drill head 31, another, left-hand threaded embodimentof which is shown in Fig. 9, is preferably given a conical shape, and isprovided with machined or welded-on screw-threads 38, having a pitchangle of from 30 to 50, whereby a cutting action is secured in rocky,cemented soils. The head 31 may be hard-faced with a material such astungsten carbide. The rotation of the head 31 results in the applicationof a vertical component of force to the drive point by of the lead screw20 with regard to nut 26.

the ground at the place where the head enters the ground.v This actionresults in the conversion,'at the point of penetration, of the torqueapplied to the head into a large vertical force additional to thevertical force which is applied to the drill rod and head through clutch33 and which is limited by the stiffness of rod 35.

When operating in relatively soft ground, where a quick penetration ispossible, it may be desirable simply to drive the rod 35 into theground, without having recourse to the rotational drilling action of thepresent mechanism. In such cases the following procedure may befollowed: One or more narrow horizontal slots 21 are cut in the threadsof the lead screw 28, as shown in Figs. 2 and 6. -One or more lockingplate's23 and 25, provided with openings 25a for sliding along thethreads of the screw 28 and for engaging said slots, may normally restfreely on top of the nut 26 or of plate 28. When these plates areshifted along the threads of screw 28 to bring them in register withslots 21, and are given a 90 turn to engage said slots 2l, the nut 26 isfirmly held against or between plates 23 or 25, which prevents anyrotational or linear motion The reciprocating motion of the cylinder 28results therefore in a rectilinear ramming action of the rod 35, whichis gripped as before by the clutch 33 for downward or upward motion.This procedure is. usually also followed when pulling the rod from theground.

It will be seen that the motion of the cylinder 28 results ineffectively applying the weight of the vehicle 5 to the rod 35 inforcing said rod into the ground. In cases'where it is desired to applyfor these purposes to the rod 35 a weight greater than that of thevehicle 5, the latter may be anchored to the ground by forcing thereintoa spike or anchoring rod 5 attached, for example, to a frame member ofthe vehicle 5.

I claim as my invention:

In a portable device for forcing tools into the ground and for removingthem therefrom, a supporting frame, actuating means mounted on the framefor reciprocating vertical motion, a rod adapted to be forced into theground, a clutch comprising a set of grips to engage said rod forvertical upward motion and a set of grips adapted to engage said rod forvertical downward motion, means for moving one of said sets of gripsinto operative engagement with the rod; and means comprising a nutattached to the actuating means-and a lead screw attached to the clutchfor converting the reciprocating motion of the actuating means into arotational motion v of said rod.

GERALD L. HASSLER.

